After weeks of planning, I cracked open the very first chapter of the very first draft of my very first novel. Then I Googled: “How long should a chapter be?”
Then I turned into an Alice and fell straight down the rabbit hole. End scene.
The Problem With Googling Things While Writing
I have a love/hate relationship with Google (please don’t ding me for that, Google Robots). Half my job in my 9 to 5 is appealing to Google (yes, yes, and the human I’m writing to). The thing that makes Google great is the thing that makes going to Google during the writing process so dangerous.
There’s too much.
One seemingly innocent question about chapter lengths led me down an hour-long slippery slope of advice columns and reddit threads about what should and shouldn’t be included in a first draft, followed by hours of overthinking that “I’m not doing this right.”
The silver lining is one nugget of advice I found that I’ve held onto ever since, in the form of a post-it note tape-reinforced on my desktop monitor 👇
It says: Don’t worry about anything in the first draft. As long as it gets written!
This piece of advice propelled me through all my self-doubt during the initial drafting process. Writing a novel is scary. It’s big. You have so much in your brain and heart ready to spill out on paper, you can’t seem to get it out fast enough. And when you do, it’s hard not to think about what comes next: editing, rewriting it (this one really scared me 😨), editing it again, learning the publishing process, submitting it, marketing it…
😅
Let’s just take it one chapter, one word at a time (without worrying about how many words should make up said chapter).
Just. 👏Write. 👏 It. 👏
There are so many things that will pull you away from your project. Now that I’m on the other side of the first draft as a first time novelist, here are the top worries I found myself coming back to. I’ll address them here so you don’t have to spiral.
6 Things Not To Worry About During Your First Draft
#1. Word Count
Quick caveat: Word count is a popular method for setting goals and tracking your writing progress, and for good reason. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing that little number in the bottom left corner rise. :’)
It’s a fine balance, though. Use word count to track your progress, but don’t measure yourself against other writers or “genre standards.”
For example, when I wrote my first draft, I projected my target word count to come in “low” for a sci-fi novel. I calculated this after writing what I considered Act I and forecasting that trend for the rest of the novel (because of who I am as a person). At just shy of 10,000 words and assuming Act I “should” be only 25% of the whole thing (and Act II 50% and Act III 25%), I’d be looking at a 40,000 word novel, which is much too low for a “typical” sci-fi novel.
(I’m using a lot of quotation marks because who made up these rules?)
Welcome to the rabbit hole.
The words will come if you focus on the story at hand. You can always expand and remove later. I knew deep down that I had gaps to fill and fluff to remove and the projected 40,000 word count wouldn’t be an issue. In fact, despite my best attempt at math, my first draft ended up with around 85,000 words, and in its beta state it’s sitting at just under 100,000. No calculations or forecasts. Just writing the story that needs to be told.
So, worrying about word count? Here are a few pointers on avoiding this common trap:
- Set realistic word count goals based on your individual/personal capacity.
- Switch to time-based goals (30 minutes a day, for example) if word count goals distract you.
- Give grace to yourself if you fall short. One word is better than none.
👆I feel pretty strongly about all of the above, and the rest of these tips follow a similar theme: Focus on your story.
#2. Chapter & Scene Structure
Sitting down to write the first chapter after weeks of planning was…intense. I was legit nervous. I felt like Spongebob trying to write his “What I learned in boating school is” essay:
Queue the Google search…this time, I asked things like:
- What should I include in the first chapter?
- How do I know a chapter is done?
- How many scenes should be in a chapter?
- How many chapters should my book have?
- How many words per chapter? Per scene?
- What’s the difference between a chapter and scene?
Yeah, that rabbit hole will get ya! Even though I grew up writing and pursued a creative writing minor in my undergraduate studies, it’s been a while since I’ve learned or had to think about the definition and structure of a chapter. So I started asking questions, a slippery slope to questioning everything I knew about storytelling and, more importantly, the story I wanted to tell.
This stuff is important. There are definitely certain boxes to tick for a really stand out first chapter that makes your readers want to turn the page. So, I do recommend reading a few articles on chapters and scenes to get a grasp on the basics before writing. But don’t let it interrupt your flow.
Here are some resources I found helpful for a quick refresh on chapters and scenes:
Before writing your first chapter, or any chapter at all, I recommend making a list of things that you want to happen in that chapter so you know where you’re going. (And don’t be surprised if you end the chapter in a different place than you planned.) Keep the basics of scene structure in the back of your mind, but don’t let it drive you and don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Because you won’t. Which leads me to my next point…
#3. Writing Quality
This one sounds silly, but I mean it. Whether you’re a lifelong writer or completely new to the craft, the first draft is not the place to worry about it being “good” or not.
All that matters is that it exists on paper instead of your mind.
In my day job, I manage a few writers and my mantra as of late has been this:
- First, gather information.
- Second, craft it together.
In other words, get your facts straight, get the story on the page, then make it sound nice. If you try to do both at the same time, you’ll get nowhere. Or you’ll get somewhere but really slowly and probably not as well.
#4. Genre Tropes
A book trope is “a plot device or character attribute that is used so commonly in the genre that it’s seen as commonplace or conventional.” Readers love (or love to hate) certain book tropes. For example:
- Enemies to lovers in fantasy/adventure books
- “The chosen one” in fantasy books
- Love triangles in romance books
- Time travel in sci-fi books
But just because a specific trope is common doesn’t mean you have to force it into your story to fit in. Tropes live on the boundary of cliche if they are overused enough (or used poorly). Though tropes can be a useful way to later market your book and capture a specific audience, you can certainly hook your readers without promising tropes.
That’s neither here nor there, though. We’re only on the first draft. Definitely explore tropes for ideas in the planning stage if they make sense for your plot and, more importantly, your characters, but don’t feel pressure to fit into your genre or whatever is popular right now. Tell your story!
#5. Character Descriptions
The most amazing part of writing my first novel was experiencing my characters reveal themselves to me in ways I could have never expected.
I honestly have a hard time describing this phenomenon with words, but it’s real. My characters said and did things I did not ask them to. For example, one character—who I won’t name so I don’t impose my opinion of them on a potential future reader (😉)—I planned to be kind of an annoying and bad character. On paper, they ended up being lovable and had much more chemistry with another character than I expected. If I forced my vision of them onto the page, that might not have happened.
What about physical descriptions? The same idea applies. I had a vision for my villain and when I finally introduced him in the narrative, he ended up looking a lot different than planned.
The moral: As fun as it is to imagine your characters in action, you don’t need to tell your reader their exact outfit or hairstyle or eye color, unless it’s important to the plot.
Let the reader imagine the character for themselves, and let your characters speak. In your second draft, you can always refine and pepper in more detail. Speaking of that…
#6. The Second Draft
Before I even finished my first draft, I literally searched: “Do I have to write a second draft?”
I read so many times through my other Google-search-spiral-sessions that you should rewrite—not edit, rewrite—your novel at least but probably more than once.
Let me tell you, I did not want to have to do that. Writing a book is hard enough. Now you want me to put it aside and write it again? No way. I thought I had it all planned out and I wouldn’t need a major rewrite.
I was wrong.
I’m glad I was wrong.
By the end of the first draft, you’ve learned so much about your story and characters. You’ve probably developed a voice. Your ending might’ve changed. A rewrite lets you go back to the beginning and pull all that in more intentionally. Plus, your craft will naturally improve after writing a whole novel, which means your second draft is bound to be better (and you can start thinking about writing quality at that point 😉).
So, with that all in mind, I encourage you to not be intimidated by the idea of a second draft, especially before you even finish the first one. You’ll get there when you get there, and you’ll be better for it. I promise.
Final Thoughts: Tell Your Story
There are so many writing rules out there, especially when it comes to writing your first novel. I personally experienced all of these worries during my first draft and would have to repeat to myself over and over again: Don’t worry about anything in the first draft. As long as it gets written!
Let your story unfold, and the rest will come together. You got this!
